Jeff Fleischer

About Jeff

Hey. Kia ora. G’day. Talofa. Welcome to JeffFleischer.com.

For those who don’t know me, I’ve been a journalist for more than 15 years. I’ve lived in three states and three countries, and my work has appeared in more than 30 nations on every continent save Antarctica.

I’m the author of three books, each of which you can learn more about on this site: “Votes of Confidence: A Young Person’s Guide to American Elections” (Zest Books, 2016), “Rockin’ the Boat: 50 Iconic Revolutionaries from Joan of Arc to Malcolm X” (Zest Books, 2015), and “The Latest Craze: A Short History of Mass Hysterias” (Fall River Press, 2011). I’ve also published fiction stories in publications like The Chicago Tribune’s Printers Row Journal, Shenandoah, The Saturday Evening Post, Steam Ticket and several others.

In terms of jobs, I’ve served as a fellow at Mother Jones, a reporter in residence at the Sydney Morning Herald and the national op/ed and politics editor for U-Wire. As a freelance writer, I’ve worked for publications from Chicago Magazine and Mental_Floss to the New Republic and BuzzFlash to the Chicago Daily Herald and Rugby Magazine. Internationally, my work’s appeared in publications including the Toronto Star, Sudan Tribune, Southland (New Zealand) Times and Austria’s Profil.

I spent 2008 as an Alicia Patterson Foundation fellow in New Zealand and the South Pacific, and I’m always keeping up with magazine and newspaper work and interested in picking up more. While most of my recent reporting is in the politics/current affairs category, I also have years of experience covering sports, entertainment, business and travel. I’ve interviewed people ranging from a former U.S. president and the head of United Nations peacekeeping in Rwanda to a Pulitzer-winning graphic novelist and a member of Monty Python. I’ve learned to throw a googly from one of Australia’s top cricket bowlers, spent a month reporting on a remote Pacific atoll, guest lectured to law students about my research and seen my work included in multiple university syllabi and a few textbooks around the world.

I’m also a veteran newsroom editor and equally experienced editing books, articles and screenplays. A consultant on a range of journalism and business projects. A screenwriter and documentary filmmaker. A photographer and visual artist. A former Chicago improv comic and local radio talk show host. I have a bachelor’s in journalism and history from Indiana University and a master’s in magazine journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

So that’s a short overview of who this site is about. (For the record, I am not the poet, youth advocate or Oregon birdwatcher who share my name – and decidedly not the bowhunter.)